Anatomy of a conviction: How Brad Jennings was found guilty in 2009 on a faulty assumption

What is blood spatter evidence and how it was used to convict Brad Jennings?

This is the photo that made Sgt. Dan Nash conclude it was highly unlike Lisa Jennings took her own life. He said there should have been much more "blowback" of blood and tissue. But one study shows that in 68 percent of gunshot suicides there is no detectable blood and tissue on the victim's shooting hand.(Photo: from the case file)

Time and time again, the prosecutor and two key witnesses in the 2009 Brad Jennings murder trial told jurors the laws of physics would have had to have been miraculously suspended for Lisa Jennings to have killed herself.

The reason?

Because there was but a single drop of blood on her right hand, they argued. Far more "blowback" of blood and tissue should be there if she had pulled the trigger herself.

Instead, she had to have been murdered, the lead detective told jurors. And it was her husband who killed her, he contended.

Lisa Jennings died in the early hours of Christmas Day 2006 from a gunshot to the head.

The prosecutor's argument was persuasive. As a result, Brad Jennings, of Buffalo, was convicted and spent 8½ years in prison.

Brad Jennings(Photo: file photo)

But an independent forensics company in Topeka, Kansas — hired by the Missouri Attorney General's Office to review whether Brad Jennings should be tried again for murder — contradicts that basic premise regarding how blood stains are interpreted.

In fact, in 68 percent of all suicides by gunshot, no detectable blood or tissue is found on the victim's shooting hand, according to a 2005 study.

That's according to the Topeka company's 33-page report, obtained by the News-Leader.

Of 103 victims in the study, only 33 had "detectable and observable blood spatter."

'Second miracle' needed to conclude this was a suicide, prosecutor said

This runs counter to what prosecutor Kevin Zoellner told jurors in his closing argument in the murder trial of Brad Jennings:

"... For this to be a suicide, there would have had to be a second miracle on Christmas Day. The laws of physics would have had to have been suspended so that blood could loop and dive and wave, to avoid this hand. To avoid this gun.

"He (Jennings) was asked to explain it and he said he couldn't. Because to explain it means he has to admit to his children that he killed their mother. He can't do that."

The independent report would indicate it was the prosecution that did not understand physics.

It states that oftentimes, the gases discharged by a gun discharged in close proximity to the head will push the blowback away from the hand and arm.

The report mentions another study that concluded: "Great care should be taken in attaching significance to the absence of backspatter on an accused person or a firearm."

Jennings' conviction was vacated in February and on Thursday, the Attorney General's Office — relying on the independent report — announced it would not re-try Jennings.

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Marsha Iler, left, and Freda Jennings hug Brad Jennings after he was released at the Texas County Jail from the South Central Correctional Center on bond on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. Iler is his sister and Freda Jennings is his mother.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

The report was compiled by Topeka-based forensic science company Van Stratton, Winer and Associates, LLC.

Michael Van Stratton told the News-Leader on Friday he reviewed the case for two to three months. He relied on more than just photographs, he said.

He requested and received the clothing worn by Brad and Lisa Jennings the night of her death.

"Police officers are generally taught that if there is a contact gunshot wound to the head that there has to be backspatter," he said.

"Contact" means the muzzle is either touching the body or extremely close to it.

But that's not true, he said.

In addition to the gases produced by discharge, he said, other factors that can account for lack of backspatter on the victim's hand or arm are hair and angle of the gun.

What this means is that Jennings had years taken from his life in part due to faulty forensic science and also by the fact Sgt. Dan Nash, the lead investigator in the case, failed to disclose a gunshot residue test performed on the bathrobe Jennings wore the night his wife died.

The test was negative, indicating it was unlikely Jennings had fired a gun the night his wife died.

Nash, who is with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, had ordered the bathrobe test and in November testified at Jennings' habeas corpus hearing that he did not disclose the test or its results because it never came to his attention. The negative test results were faxed to him from the highway patrol crime lab in Springfield.

A habeas corpus petition is a convicted person's last shot at freedom.

Nash testified he never received the test he had requested because the fax machine at Troop D headquarters on Kearney Street is upstairs, and his office is in the basement.

Jennings was convicted despite the fact that, on the night of his wife's death, gunshot residue tests were performed on his hands and on Lisa's hands; the results indicated she took her own life.

The test on his hands was negative and the test on Lisa Jennings, who was right-handed, was positive on her right hand, indicating it was likely she had fired a weapon.

The Dallas County sheriff and coroner initially concluded the death was a suicide. But Lisa Jennings' younger sister suspected her brother-in-law of murder and asked the highway patrol to review the case, which it did.

Jennings has consistently told police the reason there was blood on his bathrobe was that he held Lisa's body to him when he found her dead in their bedroom.

Report inconclusive: Could be homicide, could be suicide

The report by the Topeka firm concludes:

"Based on the bloodstain patterns and the fact that the victim has been in several positions in the closet raises suspicion as to the events in the death of Lisa Jennings.

"The bloodstain patterns on the clothing of Brad Jennings could fit the scenario of Brad Jennings killing Lisa Jennings.

"However, it's very possible that the bloodstains on his clothing are consistent with some of his reported actions and that he found his wife in the closet with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Sgt. Dan Nash says he has not been disciplined nor had his job duties altered as a result of his actions in the Brad Jennings case.(Photo: Missouri State Highway Patrol)

"It's my opinion that this case, based on the bloodstain evidence presented, that Lisa Jennings' death could be the result of a homicide or a self-inflicted wound."

Their testimony before jurors was that it was almost physically impossible for Lisa Jennings to have shot herself because there was only a single drop of blood on her hand.

At the trial, Nash testified that he was certified as a bloodstain pattern analyst. That was true at trial in August 2009. But he was not certified at the time he did the Jennings investigation in 2007.

Nash was certified in August 2008 after attending an introductory one-week workshop on bloodstain pattern analysis.

Detective says bloodstain pattern analysis 'not complicated'

From the stand, Nash said bloodstain pattern analysis "was not complicated."

Zoellner asked him about his experience. Nash said he had been involved in about 300 homicide cases and half of them involved bloodstain pattern analysis.

Nash explained to jurors why he quickly ruled out suicide in the case of Lisa Jennings.

"Well, number one, the photo of her right hand without having — with just one 90-degree blood droplet on it. I tried to think of any scenario where she could have shot herself and sustained that much trauma to the right side of her temple and not sustained a large amount of blowback of blood, and tissue, and brain on her right hand and her right arm. And couldn't think of one.

"... Therefore I — just in that one photo, in and of itself, I don't think that she shot herself."

"... There is a science to all of this," Nash told jurors, "that just from momentum, there's no way that you can have all this large blood going down that wall, and on the side of the door jamb, but yet not it being — not be all over her hand. It starts here, and then it somehow goes around her hand? And her arm, but then it ends up on the wall, and door jamb?"

Jennings and his sister Marsha Iler, who paid for Deputy's services, have expressed their disappointment in what they view as Deputy's lack of preparation and vigor.

Deputy did not call a bloodstain pattern expert to refute Nash's testimony. He made no opening statement, took no depositions and called only one witness — who testified that Brad Jennings is right-handed. (Blood stains were not found on the right sleeve of Jennings' bathrobe.)

Sgt. Rogers told jurors how he confronted Jennings with the evidence against him.

"I just explained to him that when a weapon is fired, a gun, and the explosion occurs within the chamber, the projectile, of course, goes out the barrel, and there are gases that are associated with that. Some of that — some of those gases come out the end of the barrel, some of them go out the breach. And if they strike an object very close, there is blowback."

Instead of confessing, Jennings told Rogers, "The evidence is lying."

In his closing argument, prosecutor Zoellner hammered away at the lack of blowback.

"... There would be all kinds of blood on her hand, okay.

"Ladies and gentlemen, on December 25th of 2006 there was one miracle on Christmas Day, it wasn't the suspension of the law of physics in the Jennings household, okay? It was the birth of Jesus."